Classic Hits 1938-52 is a five-disc, 123-track collection of Big Joe Turner’s earliest recording sessions before finding stardom with his mid-’50s R&B sides. While this JSP set isn’t extravagant, it’s a luxury to have Turner’s sides for National, Aladdin, Freedom, MGM, and Imperial remastered and together in one collection.Read More

In addition to being one of the world’s premier blues imprints, Chicago-based Chess Records presented some of rock & roll’s earliest participants. Chess Rhythm & Roll (1994) is a five-plus hour celebration of essential proto-rockers cut between 1947 and 1967. The four-CD assemblage is a companion to the Chess Blues (1992) box set and picks up during the label’s formative days when their repertoire was expanding to a greater audience beyond the realm of R&B.Read More

Little Richard was not the only original rock & roller to attempt a comeback in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but he may have been the one to take the greatest musical risks. Fats Domino merely updated his sound (albeit in a charming fashion), Jerry Lee Lewis refashioned himself as a hardcore country singer, and Chuck Berry pandered with “My Ding-A-Ling,” but Little Richard pushed himself on his three albums for Reprise, all of which were collected — along with his contributions to Quincy Jones’ 1972 Dollar$ soundtrack album, non-LP singles, session outtakes, and a complete unreleasedRead More

Vocal groups and styles came and went from the 1950s through the 1980s, but somehow the Drifters evolved and persevered, spanning doo-wop and disco before being relegated exclusively to the oldies touring circuit. Rockin’ & Driftin’ collects highlights from the group’s embryonic Clyde McPhatter-led era (beginning with 1953’s “Money Honey”) into the mid-’70s, when the group still had some standing in the U.K. “On Broadway,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Up on the Roof,” “Under the Boardwalk”–they’re all included in this handsome, thoroughly annotated three-disc box set. Read More

So ya got your doo-wop box, your soul box, your disco box but what about the most influential R&B style of the last 30 years? That’s right, brother, it’s funk-and here are 55 of the baddest grooves from the style’s 1970-1983 heyday, featuring all full-length versions from the best tape sources possible.Read More

Nina Simone was a singular artist, and she went where she pleased, leaving behind a recorded legacy that is passionate, political, defiant, and delicate by turns, no matter what strain of folk, blues, jazz, or gospel she was dipping into, and she did it all with dignity, grace, and intelligence. This set collects all nine of her albums for RCA Records (released between 1967 and 1974)Read More

Vocalist Al Jarreau is one of the most successful singers in history. He has scored hits on Billboard’s Jazz, R&B, Adult Contemporary, and Contemporary Jazz charts. He’s won multiple Grammys and sold millions of records. Rhino has assembled 15 tracks that represent his long career with Warner Brothers and even cross-licensed a couple from Universal’s GRP and Verve imprints.Read More

UK collection from one of the greatest Soul/R&B acts of all time. The Supremes are the most commercially successful Motown act, making them a serious force in girl power terms. This compilation draws from their entire career and boasts some truly incredible tracks including ‘Baby Love’, ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, ‘Stoned Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’.Read More

Relying on their top-notch songwriting and impeccable vocals, the Bee Gees were able to craft a long-running career that began in the late ’50s in Australia. Along the way they became a hit-producing psychedelic pop group in England during the ’60s, the biggest disco band in the world in the ’70s, and had a late comeback as adult contemporary crooners in the ’90s. Their long-reaching influence extended past sales figures and saw their sound and style mirrored in acts as disparate as Justin Timberlake and of montreal.Read More

Original Hits: 70s is a decent six-disc set, highlighting 111 pop singles released in that decade. Along with the original versions of radio classics by Al Stewart, Blondie, the Knack, KC & the Sunshine Band, and Dr. Hook, are less-than-obvious inclusions by Peter Tosh, XTC, the Move, and Benny Hill!.Read More

It took quite a while for a definitive Barry White compilation to hit the market, but All-Time Greatest Hits — part of Mercury’s Funk Essentials series — finally filled the bill in 1995. Boasting a full 20 tracks from White’s heyday of 1973-1978, more than half of which made the R&B Top Ten, All-Time Greatest Hits is easily the most generous single-disc White collection on the market.Read More